Vending machine



.Sept. 5, 1933. F. L. MILLS VENDING MACHINE Filed May 4, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept. 5, 1933. F. L. MILLS 1,925,199

VENDING MACHINE Filed May 4. 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. '5, 1933 UNITED sTAres PATENT o1=1=1ce Novelty Company, Chi

of Illinois cago, 111., a corporation Application May 4", 1929. Serial No. 360,366

' 8 Claims. (Cl. 19%59) This invention relates to vending machines and has for its object the provision of a machine particularly suited for vending commodities at apartment houses and like places, the plan being that 5 the machine shall be kept stocked with staple commodities which may be obtained therefrom by tenants of the building upon theinsertion of a proper coin in the machine. This plan of merchandising has formerly been proposed but the objection has arisen that there was danger of loss due to the use of slugs by people in the neighborhood or by the home owner or apartment dweller himself to obtain the merchandise fraudulently. To overcome this objection, I have devised a machine which requires'the use of both a key and a coin in order to obtain anarticle of merchandise therefrom, thus making it impossible for one who does not have a key to operate the machine by means of a slug, and inasmuch as 20 the keys will be in the possession of the home owner or apartment dweller only, it will be known that he used the slug if one is found in the machine. This means of identifying the responsible party in'case a slug is used will serve as an effective deterrent to such practice and; itis believed will renderfeasable the use of vending machines at homes and apartments'for dispensing commodities such as coffee or any other staple articles, thus avoiding the heavy cost of delivery by the merchant of merchandise of this character in small quantities.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description, which, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment thereof.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partially broken away and with certain parts shown in-section', 40 of a vending machine in which-my invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on the section line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the key-andcoin-operating mechanism; and

Fig. i is a perspective view of the latching device for one of the compartments of the machine.

In said drawings, which are to be taken as merely illustrative of one type of machine in which the principles of my invention may be embodied, the reference character 2i indicates a casing in which there are provided a number of compartments 22, each having a separate door 2 3, the doors being normally locked and being providedwith glass panels 24 through which the commodity contained within the compartment may be seen by, the customer, Latching devices are provided for said doors and each of said devices comprises a bell crank member 25 60, pivoted at 26 to a framepart127, one ar1n 28..0f said bell crank extending outwardly through ,a slot 29 in the frontof the casing and being adapted to be actuated by the customer tounlatch the door when the locking mechanism hasbeen released in mannerwhich will be hereinafter described. The other .arm 31 ofwsaidbell crank extends upwardly within the casing andis pro: vided at its end with astud32, which normally, bears against the front edge ofabar 33 mounted within said casing and. retained in positionby means of keepers 34 secured to one of the side walls of the casing, .Said bellcrank member 25 is formed with a laterally extending lug35 which normally engages in a slot 36 in a keeper 37 se cured'to the inner side of the door23 by means of rivets 38. A spring 39 secured at one end to said lug 35 and at the other end to the side wall of th c insabo said luaa n catedat 41, serves to hold the stud 32 in the upwardly extending bell crank arm 31 against the front edge of ba Said bar 331s provided withja serie sof notches 42, which, when brought into registration with thestuds 32 in manner which will presently. appear, permit the belll crank member 25 to .be turned on its pivot, diSenga i l thelugBSfrom the notch36 in thek'eeper 37 on the interior of the" door whereupon'said door may be opened, a knob 43 being preferably providedon the exterior of menace for this purpose. I v

Said bar 3 15 normally held in raised position by means of a'con'trol member or'fing'er'44 which is "pivoted atf45j' upon the inner face of a'sup'port- 11 plat'edfi providedonthe" interior offa'lowei' 95, front wall i? of the casing; the parts now being described-"being clearly shown in Fig, 3 of the drawings. The upper en'd' of said member 441s hooked, as'in'dicated at 48,*and is normally held in forward position and withinoneofa series of notches 4 9 in'the lower part of the bar 33 by meansof a coil spring" 51 which is wound around a st'ud'52 protruding fromthesuppor'tirig plate 46, the upper end 53 "ofsaid spring bearing against a second stud 54,"as shown in Fig. 1.

The lower end' of "the member 44 bears against a'stud 55onthesupporting plate 46 and 'is'form'ed with'a laterallyexten'ding"arm'56 disposed be"- neath said stud 55 and extending into a'coinchute indicated'by'the' referencecharacter 5'7; The 1.10

upper part 58 of said coin chute angles forwardly to a point adjacent the lower front wall portion 47 of the casing in which there is provided a coin slot 59, a guide 61 being located on the interior of the casing behind said coin slot to direct coins inserted in the latter into the coin chute in manner which will be readily apparent from viewing Fig. 2. Coins inserted in said slot drop to the position shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, from which it will be observed that the coin indicated by the reference character 62 rests upon the stud 63 provided in the coin slot and is disposed between the arm 56 on the lower part of the member 44 and a bolt 64 of a key lock, the cylinder of which is indicated by the reference character 65, said cylinder being provided with an eccentric stud 66 extending into a slot 67 in one end of said bolt 64. The exterior of the key lock is indicated at 68 in Fig. 1 and is provided with a keyhole 69 adapted to receive a key 71 shown in Fig. 2, the lock construction being of any ordinary or preferred form and the operation thereof to actuate the bolt 64 being obvious.

When a coin has been inserted in the machine, the key lock may be actuated by one having a suitable key, thereby projecting the bolt 64 toward the right, viewing Fig. 3, and forcing the coin 62 against the arm 56 of the pivoted member 44, thereby withdrawing the upper hooked end 48 of said member from the particular notch 49 in the bar 33 in which it has been engaged, permitting the bar to drop one step or until said hooked end 48 of-the member 44 engages in the succeeding notch in said bar into which it is urged by means of the spring 51. The coin chute 57 is enlarged laterally, as indicated at '72, so that the coin when moved laterally by the lock bolt 64 may be freed from the stud 63 and after actuating the member 44 will drop into a coin box indicated at 73 in Fig. 1.

The descent of the bar 33 by this operation of the locking mechanism will permit the stud 32 of the bell crank member 25 of the latching mechanism for the lowermost compartment 22 to enter the lower notch 42 in the bar 33, thereby unlocking the door for that compartment and enabling the customer to open the same and remove the package for which he has paid. The notches 42 in said bar are so related that the first coin inserted serves to open only the lowermost compartment, the next coin serving to open the compartment next above and the third coin the next higher compartment, it being understood that any desired number of compartments might be provided and that the compartment arranged and the mechanism for unlatching the doors might be varied widely, the form shown being merely an exemplification of one of many particular forms which this part of the machine might take.

A handle '74 is provided on the lower end of the bar 33 for lifting the latter to initial position after the compartments have been emptied, this being accomplished by an authorized person who may have access to the machine through a rear door '75 shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the construction hereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

I claimi 1. A vending machine comprising a normally locked container for the commodity to be dispensed and locking mechanism therefor requiring the simultaneous use of both a key and a coin for the operation thereof to unlock said container, said locking mechanism including a movable control member, a release member operatively connected with said control member, a keyoperated member positioned adjacent said release member, and means for introducing a coin to afford an operative connection between said release member and said key-operated member, said machine having a plurality of compartments for different commodities, and said locking mechanism being successively operable to give access to said compartments in predetermined order.

2. A vending machine comprising a container forthe commodity to be dispensed, a door for said container, a latch for said door, means normally preventing the operation of said latch, and means requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operation thereof to render said lastmentioned means ineffective and to thereby permit operation of said latch to open the door.

3. A vending machine comprising a normally locked commodity container and a key-and-coinoperated locking mechanism for said container, said locking mechanism including a movable control member, a release member operatively connected with said control member, a key-operated member positioned adjacent said release member, and means for introducing a coin to afford an operative connection between said release member and said key-operated member, said machine having a plurality of compartments for different commodities, and said locking mechanism being successively operable to give access to said compartments in predetermined order.

4. A vending machine comprising a normally locked commodity container, locking mechanism therefor including a movable control member and actuating means operable by a key and a coin for operating said control member to unlock said container, said actuating means including a release member operatively connected with said control member, a key-operated member positioned adjacent said release member, and means for introducing a coin to afiord an operative connection between said release member and said key-operated member, said machine having a plurality of compartments for different commodities, and said locking mechanism being successively operable to give access to said compartments in predetermined order.

5. A vending machine comprising a commodity container provided with a door and a lock mechanism therefor requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operation thereof, said lock mechanism including a latch, a movable control member for preventing operation of said latch and means operable to render said control member ineffective and to thereby permit operation of said latch to open the door, said means said control member to unlock said container, said actuating means including, a release lever having operative engagement with said control member, a key-operated member positioned adjacent said release lever, and means for introducing a coin to afford an operative connection between said release lever and said key-operated member.

7. A vending machine of the character set forth comprising, a commodity container, a door for said container, a latch for said door, a movable control member for preventing operation of said latch, and means requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operation thereof to render said control member inefiective and to thereby permit operation of said latch to open the door, said means including a release lever having operative engagement with said control member, a key-operated member positioned adjacent said release lever, and means for introducing a coin to afiord an operative connection between said release lever and said key-operated member.

8. A vending machine of the character set forth comprising, in combination, a locker cabinet provided with a top wall, a bottom wall, and a series of intervening partitioning walls aifording compartments for holding articles of merchandise, doors for said compartments, latches for said doors, a movable control member normally preventing operation of said latches, and actuating means operable by a key and a coin for operating said control member to render it ineffective as to one of said latches, thereby permitting access to one of said compartments while maintaining the other compartments in locked condition, said control member being operable upon succeeding operations of said actuating means to successively give access to the remaining unopened compartments of the cabinet in predetermined order.

FRED L. MILLS. 

